RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

Digital social media marketing for entrepreneurs: boosting brand image… 41
generation of entrepreneurs. To this end, globalization and access to information have changed
the way entrepreneurship is implemented. The new role models of entrepreneurs are fully
digitalized in order to access resources and markets online within the knowledge society
(Siakras et al., 2014; Martin, 2008). Thus there is a high need of research to generate and
encourage such global role models – global, digital and responsible entrepreneurs that develop
within a fostering environment in which active citizenship, open innovation, co-creation, social
empowerment and digitalization are flourishing (Carayannis et al., 2010).
Such a digital driven society is implicitly drastically changing the way businesses interact
with their customers (Martin, 2008) and this aspect provides a key competitive advantage
for entrepreneurs. Specifically, we are witnessing tremendous changes in one of the core
revolutionized contemporary sectors – marketing which is steadily being blended with social
interaction through digital social media platforms in order to target very specialized needs
of the public (Mangold & Faulds, 2009; Tuten et al., 2014). To this end, the current social
media platforms became key means for startup development, promotion and more importantly
for co-creation with customers (Hanna et al., 2011) and due to their low cost and access to
wide masses – entrepreneurs are often using such techniques to boost their brand impact and
(openly) innovate. As a proof to this situation, there is a wide number of recent business startups
that undertake such practices (Goodvidio, 2014; Tuten et al., 2014; Mohr, 2014). Consequently,
according to (Siakas et al., 2014), the digital social media marketing (DSMM) sector
will significantly increase in investment, leading thus to a new business environment which
also has full policy support (EU Digital Agenda, 2012).
Nevertheless, since DSMM practices are still in their infancy stage for entrepreneurs, there
are various obstacles and acceptance issues (Royle & Laing, 2014; Beier & Wagner, 2014).
However, such trends with high societal and policy support should be immediately enabled
for entrepreneurs to pursue and this is why the literature stresses the needs for advances in
this field.
One confirmed way of overcoming such obstacles is to identify the technology acceptance
level (intentions, beliefs, perceptions, ease of use) of the targeted population and to suggest
mitigating strategies (besides refraining to just measure the actual impact of DSMM on brand
image and innovation potential of the start-up). For this purpose, one of the most utilized models
for testing technology acceptance is the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology
(UTAUT) model (Venkatesh et al., 2003) developed in the behavioural sciences
discipline. This model has been used in various disciplines (e-banking, e-health, e-commerce,
etc) however, there is no application of the model for DSMM practices for entrepreneurs
(AlAwadhi & Morris, 2008).
To this end, this paper binds together marketing studies, technology/digitalization and
behavioural sciences in order to:
– Understand how digital trends like digital social media marketing (DSMM) can boost
entrepreneurs’ brand image and potential for innovation and co-creation with their customers.
– Apply the UTAUT model on a sample of entrepreneurs in order to identify their acceptance
levels of DSMM practices and, complemented by performance measurement survey
questions, – assess the actual impact of DSMM practices on brand image and innovation.
– Based on the survey findings, recommendations for improved implementation of DSMM
practices for entrepreneurs to boost their brand image and their innovation potential through
co-creation with their customers.